The follow-up to the band’s acclaimed debut album, “Endless Scroll” (2018), and 2019’s “Shiny New Model” EP, “Broken Equipment” was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. The album’s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. On ‘NYC (disambiguation)’, they break down how the Big Apple was “founded by a corporation” and history remains alive in the present. The poetic ‘Pillar on the Bridge of You’ is the first love song Ben ever wrote for Nikki, while ‘All Past Lovers’ gazes back to the “southern belle” and “chat room suitor” who still live inside him today.
Armed only with a killer wit and sticky refrains hammered out with complete confidence. Luckily for us, we’ve already heard three great singles from the album, “Thrown,” “Doers” and “Statuette On The Console” (along with two killer b-sides), allowing time for each subsequent earworm to work its way into our systems and leave us to wait impatiently for our next adrenaline rush courtesy of Bodega.
“It’s making me bitter, harder, fatter, stressed out,” they sing of daily life in recent (constantly “unprecedented”) times on “Doers,” reflecting how a bunch of us feel right now, but thankfully doing it in a way that we can dance it all out to.
To accompany the propulsive pace of ‘Statuette on the Console’ and its lyrics about switching perspectives, Nikki recorded alternate versions in eight different languages. “I used God in that song as this arch overlord character, but it could also be a real estate developer,” she explains. “It’s about anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around.” In that song, Nikki also wryly states that although she doesn’t have faith in this particular “God,” she is still “living life with (my) platitudes.” On ‘Territorial Call of the Female’, Nikki playfully quips that “when the man is around that’s when I’m putting you down,” highlighting how in the past she unknowingly reinforced patriarchal values by turning against other women to attract men. It’s moments like these where Bodega most exemplifies their self-professed motto that “the best critique is self critique.”
The Fat Angel Sings 